Abstract : Our long range scientific objective is to understand the operation and distribution of processes that control construction and degradation of volcanic adifices on the seafloor. Submarine volcanoes (seamounts) significantly contribute or even dominate roughness characteristics of the seafloor in many parts of the world's oceans. Despite this fact their fundamental distributions and the controls on their distributions remain poorly understood. To begin to address this problem, our short term objective was to understand the distribution of seamounts in the ONR Natural Laboratory located on the western flank of the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR), and to interpret the responsible processes. Our long term goal is a quantitative model for the production and degradation of seamounts as a function of tectonic setting, spreading rate, crustal age, and volcano size.